Office of the Academic Dean

Guilford is proud of its support resources for students with disabilities. We have a broad system of support that students find useful and encouraging. Our two coordinators assist students in learning how to advocate for themselves. Many students with disabilities often know themselves well as learners; they regularly offer new ideas, strategies and fresh insights into methods that work. Visit the Disability Resources page for more information.

The Learning Commons (LC) is located on the second floor of Hege Library and is designed to help students learn more effectively and efficiently across the curriculum and throughout their lives. The LC provides support for all students, including Early College, adult, traditional, honors, under-prepared, students with special needs, students on academic probation, and those doing creative writing, advanced course work or senior theses.

Advising Mission Statement:

To guide and empower students to use critical and creative thinking as they explore academic areas of interest while developing and pursuing their life goals.

Academic advising at Guilford is far more than the two words suggest. Here at Guilford, we take to heart our responsibility to guide students through not only academic choices, but life choices as well. As students decide on a major(s), they choose an advisor within that major(s) who will assist not only with course selection, but independent studies, graduate school preparation, internship selection and/or life after graduation.

Steven Shapiro, Associate Professor of Physics, serves as the faculty head of advising.

We heavily emphasize experiential learning as an essential component of the Guilford experience. Through the Bonner Center for Community Service and Learning, the Career Development Center, the Center for Principled Problem Solving, study abroad/away and undergraduate research, our students engage in a full range of experiential learning projects that help prepare them for life after Guilford. Visit our experiential learning page for more information about the various opportunities available to Guilford students.

To foster individual responsibility, Guilford College subscribes to the principles of an honor system and encourages a mature understanding and acceptance of the code.

What is the Honor Code?
The statement, “I have been honest and have not observed any dishonesty,” gives testament to the honor system and should be pledged in writing on all academic work. Compliance is assumed even if the statement does not appear on College work. Faculty members may insist that the statement be written on all academic work and may refuse to extend credit for work on which it does not appear.

Student Responsibility to the Honor System
In addition to adherence to the Honor Code, students are expected to confront other students who have apparently violated the code and to report such violations. A failure to confront or report such violation may be considered a violation of honor code.

What is its importance to life and education at Guilford?
Academic honesty and integrity represent central elements of the liberal arts education at Guilford College. As scholars pursuing knowledge and truth, informed by the Quaker testimony on integrity, we seek a community where each member acts responsibly and honorably in all activities and at all times. Acts of dishonesty represent a serious offense at Guilford College.

What constitutes a violation of the honor code?
The academic honor code is violated when anyone claims credit, implicitly or explicitly, for work and ideas that are not her or his own. Violations of the academic honor code include, but are not limited to, the list below:

Plagiarism - Guilford defines plagiarism broadly as presenting the interpretations, wording, images or original conceptions of others as one’s own without appropriate acknowledgment. Individual faculty members determine what constitutes “appropriate acknowledgment” within the context of their courses, either by specifically stating requirements or by acknowledging the standard practice within a given discipline. The charge of plagiarism applies to any and all academic work whether done inside or outside of the classroom and whether submitted as a rough draft or a final product.

Unauthorized Collaboration - Students may not combine efforts on any and all academic work, done inside or outside the classroom, submitted to an instructor as a rough draft or a final product, unless specifically permitted by the instructor. Although instructors should clearly define the limits of collaboration allowed, the absence of any instructions indicates that collaboration is not permitted. When uncertain, the student should seek clarification from the instructor. In cases of unauthorized collaboration, any student giving aid is as responsible as the recipient, unless the former is unaware that she/he has provided aid. A student who seeks unauthorized aid is responsible for participating in unauthorized collaboration whether the aid was given or received. The charge of unauthorized collaboration applies to any and all academic work whether done inside or outside of the classroom and whether submitted as a rough draft or a final product.

Unauthorized Use of Materials - It is the student’s responsibility to ascertain what materials may be used in any and all academic work whether done inside or outside of the classroom and whether submitted as a rough draft or a final product. The submission for credit of the same written work in more than one course is not permitted without the prior permission of both instructors.

Whenever a student is uncertain as to whether conduct would violate the Honor Code, it is the responsibility of the student to seek clarification from the appropriate faculty member prior to engaging in such conduct.